Saquon Barkley had his high school number 21 retired Friday in his hometown of Whitehal, PA.
He looked in great shape and moved around freely.
The question now is when will Barkley make his move back to the Giants? It has been kept even tighter than a government secret.
In fact, the entire offense has been the equivalent of a series of previews before the entire show.
The Giants will host Denver Sunday in a late afternoon tilt at MetLife relying mainly on Devontae Booker for the bulk of their rushing attack.
Still, the outlook on the team’s offense is quite murky. We have yet to see the unit operating at its highest level.
If Barkley doesn’t return Sunday, do the Giants have enough offense to avoid another slow start? They basically have played a shell game with their Barkley and quarterback Daniel Jones, who saw very limited action in the preseason.
Barkley’s status earlier was stated as “100 percent” recovered from his knee injury, yet the Giants listed him as “questionable” on their injury report Wednesday.
The scuttlebutt around the Meadowlands has Barkley getting a handful of properly placed carries against Denver.
Right now, it is anybody’s guess until their first snap Sunday afternoon.
As for Jones, this is supposed to be his breakout third year in which he leads the team to the postseason.
He has the weapons in Barkley, receivers Kadarius Toney, Sterling Shepard, and Kenny Golloway along with tight ends Kyle Rudolph and Kaden Smith.
All of them will give controversial offensive coordinator Jason Garrett a full plate to handle.
Kicker Graham Gano arguably was one of the team’s offensive MVPs last season.
Dallas’ offense looked good in their opening-night loss to Tampa Thursday. With Dak Prescott back, the Cowboys again loom as the NFC favorite.
The Giants have all the offensive pieces in place to challenge Dallas, and they should be on their heels ahead of Philadelphia and Washington or Washington or Philadelphia. Both are a notch below the top two.
Head coach Joe Judge has kept the fans in suspense about their offense all summer. He and Garrett have shown sneak previews, but they haven’t revealed the whole film.
For Giants’ fans, Sunday at MetLife will be a revealing one.